The Changing and Flexible Nature of Imitation and Adulteration: The Case of the Global Wine Industry, 1850–1914

Abstract

The first wave of globalization, from 1850 to 1914, is considered to be a period when global trade and investment increased at a steady pace, impacting on global economic growth. Yet that evolution was not consistent across all industries. This article explains why, during that period, global trade in wines and other alcoholic beverages was reversed. Apart from diseases that affected vineyards in the main wine-producing countries of the Old World, various factors in the New World—including local government incentives and the presence of consumers (immigrants) with acquired habits of consumption from European countries—created strong incentives for the imitation and adulteration of wines. This study looks at the strategies used both by the imitators in expanding their businesses and by the innovators to survive in institutional environments that were weak with regard to the protection of their intellectual property.

Tracing and tracking wine bottles: Protecting consumers and producers

“…(a) Usurpation of brand identity/awareness arises when nongeographical protected wines simulating geographical protected wines or wines from prestigious regions are sold [15]. Even if cases have been reported from the 19 th and 20 th centuries [16], one of the most famous example of brand identity usurpation is Chablis: more fake wines with the label Chablis are sold than the total production of Chablis wines [17]. (b) Fraud in grape varieties happens when wines of other varieties are used without being reported, such as wines made from a mixture of grape varieties sold as wines made from a single variety.…”